St Joseph’s Parish in 2016 is a small parish, with about 150 people attending each week. However, we have developed a community that seems appropriate to the area. The emphasis is on an inclusive community with a simplicity that reflects the limited resources of the parish.
Our vision statement is: “We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which St Joseph’s stands. St Joseph’s aims to provide a safe place for all people to pray regardless of age, race, creed, gender, cultural background or sexual orientation.”
In practice this is reflected in the way we read the scriptures. I call it a political reading, although I do not mean Canberra or Macquarie Street politics. I mean we look at the political context of the text from a historical and cultural perspective and try to see how it might inform our current way of living the gospel in the inner city in 2016.
The practical implications of this way of reading the gospel include the way we pray liturgy; a series of talks and workshops that cover contemporary issues and how we can bring a faith perspective to these, which we call faithworks@newtown; and a ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics and their families and friends.
We engage with the local community in a number of ways. There is a community garden on church property and we lease Garavel Park to the council for peppercorn rent to benefit the community. This park is named after the first parish priest of Newtown. We make spaces available at low cost to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other community groups.
We lease the old school to a community of artists that meets a need for this kind of space in the inner city. We also host the Catholic Indonesian Community each Sunday for Mass and community events. We support the Asylum Seeker Centre in Bedford Street with their food bank and through the use of spaces here at St Joseph’s to support their programs.
We will celebrate this year with a Gala Dinner at St Scholastica’s, Glebe, on April 13 which recognises the long history we have with the Good Samaritan Sisters in education in the parish. We will also display a plaque to commemorate the day of the laying of the foundation stone with a special Mass on July 31 at 10.30am. Details of these events can be found on our website: http://newtownfaith.blogspot.com.au/
